Kropp straight razors, renowned for their quality, were a brand name owned by Osborne, Garret & Co Ltd, a London hairdressers's sundriesman, in case you wonder what that was, compare that to wholesalers we have today who would specialize in certain products, reselling and distributing to smaller shops, hairdressers and barbers. While stamped "KROPP" and "Real German Hollow Ground", they were not actually a German company. Instead, they were primarily manufactured in Sheffield, England, with some early models having blades ground in Hamburg, Germany. The Hamburg connection was due to faster and cheaper grinding processes there during a specific period, but the Kropp brand was firmly established by an English company.
My luck with the Kropps has been pretty bad, I got quite a few in a dodgy condition or with bad geometry, so much so that I dumped most of them as the bevels were just to nasty in the end, so when this one came my way I was not very keen to have a go at it.
This one redeemed the Kropp name for me, it is also a 6/8 where as all the others were 5/8 ths. This Kroppie also has an extra hollow grind, the others were half or full hollow, so this razor must have been one of their more premium products, the metal wedge rather than plastic confirms this.
The razor sharpened up very nicely on stones and ended up with quite a thin, even bevel, a sure sign that the razor has not seen plenty of use, and the condition of the scales confirms this. It gave decent audible feedback in the shave and put a smile on my dail, the Kropp curse has been broken! The razor is clean and all rust has been removed, but some blotches and spots remain, if you got time to sand and polish up blades this could become a great razor indeed, it shaves well and feels very good in hand, the top and bottom jimps offers lots of bite on the thumb.
This razor is shave ready and can be used as is without stropping it, stropping should be executed after first use.